Dartford housing and industrial developments brought council £9.4 million last year
Dartford Council have revealed that new developments in the area saw a windfall of £9.4 million in 2020/21.
A total of £7.1 million comes from the Community Infrastructure Levy which developers pay to mitigate impacts of development, and is a large sum when considering payment holidays were on offer due to the pandemic.
So far few councils have released the latest annual figures. Greenwich have done so and saw £1,016,563 in the same period.
Dartford now have £13,564,514 to spend from CIL income dating back over previous years.
An additional £2.3 million has been received from Section 106 funding.
Spending areas
Part of the income is being spent on public realm improvements in Dartford town centre.
This is in part to cover cost overruns.
Dartford’s report highlights both funding sources and what they can be used for. When it comes to CIL, they state:
“CIL has largely replaced the payment of developer contributions for most types of infrastructure such as schools, road improvements, health facilities and community facilities that were previously funded through site specific s106 Agreements.
However, in addition to paying CIL developers may need to make provision for infrastructure that is not CIL funded such as affordable housing through a planning condition or s106 agreement.”
Section 106 does remain however, as it continues:
“In addition to CIL a Local Planning Authority can seek contributions from development towards infrastructure provision through planning obligations contained within a legal agreement under Section 106 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990. These can cover both physical on-site provision, management of infrastructure on site and contributions for off-site provision.”
A major area of spend from S106 in Dartford includes “£2,300,000 for works that would lead to improvements to the capacity of the A282 (M25) Junction 1a”
Forthcoming projects include the 19 mile Darent Valley path and nature trail plus a Stone/Greenhithe Medical Centre. Up to £2 million will be spent there.
